How to Bet?

For the uninitiated the world of online sports betting might seem like a confusing and scary place but once you sign up for a customer account (or two) and make a few bets you should find that it is not that hard to get to know what you are doing. You will soon see that is not difficult to learn how to bet and that the most important thing to do is to use the knowledge of sports that you already possess and not get carried away.

This guide will not guarantee you non-stop winners when it comes to your betting but it will give you an idea of the basics of how to bet online as well how to live bet – and a look at some of the betting sites you might want to check out to take advantage of some great offers and promotions.

The Basics of
How to Bet Online

We will go into the details of various bets, odds and markets in a moment but the first thing you need to understand about betting online is that you need to sign up for a customer account to be able to make your selections.

Unlike the traditional method of going into a high street bookie to place a bet you actually need to register with a site first before you can go about making your bet. The good thing is that you are not obligated to sign up with just one bookie – in fact it is probably advisable to sign up with a few – and you also don’t need to stay with a bookie for ever, or even for a set amount of time.

The welcome offers you can receive from online betting companies are restricted by certain terms and conditions that mean that you may have to make a certain amount of bets before the promotion is activated fully but there is nothing to stop you from walking away at any time.

Some Promotions
You Might Be Interested In

The really good thing about learning how to live bet online is that you get to experience the multitude of bookies vying to get your custom. The way they do this is to offer welcome promotions where you get something simply by signing up with them.

One of the best well known welcome offers is from Unibet. There are a lot of bookies who have only ever been available online so they know exactly what their customers want. The promotions tend to be fairly similar but Unibet’s bonus code gives you £25 money back on your first bet.

Unibet is so popular with online punters but there are plenty of other options open to you and you may find that you prefer the set up of another bookie more.

You might want to go with a more traditional, well established bookie and this makes perfect sense. If you know the betting company has been around for a while – before online betting even existed! – then there is a little bit more security in the knowledge that your money is safe.

Ladbrokes are a good example of a bookie that has been in business for a long time but has managed to adapt to the world of online betting in a positive way. Their MAXSPORT bonus code will get you up to £50 when you register for a new customer account and is definitely nothing to turn your nose up at.

How to Sign Up
for an Online Betting Account

As we said, whether you know how to bet or not, to do it online you must first sign up with a bookie. There is a fairly standard procedure no matter what online betting company you go for so we’ll take a quick look at how to sign up for Ladbrokes using a MAXSPORT bonus code as an example.

When you go to the bonus page of Ladbrokes you will see ‘Bet Now’ button in the top right hand corner. Click on this

This will open up a new sign up screen

First you will need to enter some personal details such as name, address and email

You then get to fill in the security details you will use to log in to your account in the future

You will also need to provide the answer to a specific security question from a drop down menu which can be used to verify your identity in the case of you forgetting your log in details

Choose which currency you want to bet in and then if you want to set a deposit limit on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can choose not to set any limits as well

Then comes the most important part if you are taking advantage of a welcome offer. Enter the bonus code in the box provided. This will qualify you for the free welcome gift – in this case with Ladbrokes it would be up to £50 in free bets depending on your initial deposit

Tick the terms and conditions box

All you have to do now is click on the green ‘Open Account’ button and you’re away!

What You Should Know
Before You Learn How to Live Bet

Before we get into the details of how to bet online and the actual placing of a bet there are a few things you should get clear in your mind.

You should play to your strengths. If you are a big football fan then it follows that you should know quite a lot about the sport and have the confidence and knowledge to bet accordingly. This is not to say that you should never bet on a sport you aren’t a fan of but it makes sense to have a little bit of insight when you are spending real money.

You may already know how to bet offline so the basics of odds and different types of bets will already be familiar to you but if they are not then you really need to do a little bit of research as there is a lot of types of bets and some of them have quite confusing and exotic names for the betting newcomer.

Finally, as a basic rule, it is probably a good idea not to make your selections too extravagant when you start off. By all means make bigger bets when you have got used to the site you are using or when you have a few good bets behind you but there is no need to start off in a reckless manner. It is always good betting practice not to lose sight of where you are financially but this is just as important when you are starting off as you will not have had that much experience of the markets at that point.

The Basics of
How to Bet on Football

As we have mentioned there is a lot of different sports markets available to you and thanks largely to the emergence of online sports betting companies there is now more events than ever before that you can take a punt on.

The majority of new punters will probably be attracted by offers relating to football and it is actually by far the most popular sport for customers to bet on when it comes to online. You will probably have noticed adverts stating attractive sounding odds for first goal scorer and result combinations for just about any big game going. They may well sound good but you need to check how much you need your stake to be to receive the potential returns as well as think how likely that outcome is.

If you are completely new to online football betting then you may as well start off with the basic home, away and draw single bets. The bookies set these out in a very easy to understand way and once you have signed up for your account you just need to click on the odds you want and your selection will be automatically added to your betslip.

In this very simple bet you are just predicting whether the home team will win, or the away team, or that the match will end in a draw. One very important thing to note here is that the ‘end of the match’ means the score at the end of 90 minutes. If your match is a cup game that will then go extra time and penalties your bet finishes at the end of regular time. You can always bet on who will qualify if you want to.

A traditional favourite bet for football that has lived on in the online betting era is the multiple bet that takes in a number of matches. This obviously has less chance of coming off so you will sometimes find yourself getting very good odds with hardly any stake outlayed. With a number of different events you are always going to find it harder to win but these kinds of bets do liven up a Saturday afternoon and gives you an interest in matches you might not otherwise be bothered about.

Betting on
Other Sports Online

Although football is the most popular sport to bet on online every bookie offers markets for a whole host of other sports. Whether you want to bet on the tennis, on horse racing or even on the dogs you will be able to find the market to suit you.

As we said before it probably pays to have at least a little bit of knowledge of a particular sport before you start betting on it but you might find that it is through the betting that you find a new interest as well.

With so many tennis tournaments taking place all the time, all over the world, tennis is a very popular sport to bet on. There a number of different tours depending on the levels of skill involved so you are never that far away from a tennis sports market! You might be able to use your knowledge to good advantage on the ATP or WTA tours but for the newcomer you might want to look at the outright markets for the majors.

The big events in tennis are the US Open, the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. Betting on the outright market for these means that you are predicting the winner of the whole tournament. Just as with other sports you can bet on individual games or matches but to start off you might like to take the winnings from a successful outright bet.

How to Bet
on Horse Racing

There are so many different bets available to you when you look at horse racing – or greyhound racing for that matter – that it could all end up being very complicated for the newcomer to online betting. To give yourself a chance of betting successfully on the horses – as with any sport – you should take a look at the form guide and study up on the runners and riders involved so you know what kind of course will be liked by which kind of horse.

It is probably likely that you will want to have a bet on the big races even if you know nothing about the sport however. Although your knowledge maybe limited the public like nothing better than having a flutter on the big races such as the Grand National. You might go with a horse because of the name, the colours or even just the look of it but as long as you don’t make too much of a habit of picking your selections this way you shouldn’t get into too much trouble!

How to
Live Bet on Sports

Although any sport should have enough excitement anyway, there is no doubt that a bet placed on a game that is not as eventful does make it more interesting. Hopefully you will now have a bit of an idea about how to bet on sports online but now we will take a closer look at an aspect of betting that has greatly benefitted from technological developments.

The emergence of live – or in play – betting has not only brought more interest into online betting but opened up a whole host of new markets for the punter to discover.

Being able to bet on an event after it has started and most of the way through means that there are so many more things you can have a bet on. We talked earlier about the single bets of home winner, away winner or draw but with live betting you can go for these or many many more.

Research has shown that more and more people are taking advantage of sports markets such as next goal scorer, next yellow card or even how many runs in the next over when it comes to cricket. The high turnover of possible bets does mean that of you are new to online betting you should take care and not get too carried away. But it does also mean that there is always something new to look out for as an event progresses.

Another attractive aspect of live betting is that as the event is obviously happening while you are making your selection you will see the odds constantly changing depending on what is occurring in the event. This is where a bit of knowledge, insight or even gut instinct comes in as you will want to optimise your winnings by making your bet at the right time.

Although you would be able to put a bet on a football team winning a match at any time during the game, if they are 4-0 up with 10 minutes to go you are not going to get great odds for that outcome. Making the bet earlier, when there is much more chance for other outcomes, will get you bigger potential returns. In the end you want to get the most money back from your bet but long odds are always long odds for a reason!

Live Streaming
for Live Betting

Nearly – but not all – online betting sites also offer a live streaming service alongside their live betting section. This means that you can actually watch the action as it happens. Some events will be unavailable due to various broadcasting restrictions and regulations but a quick glance at the live streaming schedule on any betting website will show you that there is always plenty to choose from.

You could be watching top European football or some of the best tennis players in the world from the comfort of your own laptop! Your live betting odds and markets will be updating as well so you can get really good insight into what is happening as it unfolds before you. Then you can make the best selections.

The good thing is that you don’t actually have to have placed a bet on an event to watch it through your online betting site’s live streaming service. Usually all you need is to have some funds in your account or to have made a bet in the past 24 hours. Check with your online bookie to see what their specific requirements are.

What You Need to Remember
When it Comes to Betting Online

As you will have hopefully seen that there is not too much to get your head around when it comes the basics of learning how to bet on sports online. If you have even just a small idea of how to bet offline then you will have seen that it is much the same.

One of the most important things to do is really to make sure you pick the best online bookie to suit your needs. If you want to bet on a specific sport that maybe is more niche than some of the ones we have highlighted you should check which bookies cover those markets.

Research really is the key here as a lot of online betting companies have very similar markets it is sometimes in the details that you will discover that a certain site consistently has better odds for horse racing for example. If you like to have a bet on the horses then you should go with them as opposed to a bigger, more well-known brand.

Take Advantage of the Bookies!

The other thing that you should definitely remember to do no matter what bookie – or bookies – you choose to go with is regularly check out what promotions they are running. You will have seen that all sites will offer some kind of welcome promotion using a bonus code that you need to enter when you sign up but that won’t be the end of the offers.

All online betting sites have a dedicated section for current promotions and you can usually get some really good value. If there is a big event or tournament on there will be specific promotions and offers relating to it so remember to check. And most bookies will have their favourite long running promotions covering various horse races or football coupons, for example, so keep going back to take a look when you can.

How to Bet Online

Hopefully you will now realise that learning to bet on sports online does not require much hard work. The main thing is to do your research and bet responsibly. Good luck!